Autodesk's InfraWorks 360 Pro is a new software program that allows engineers and city planners to quickly create 3D city models which can be used to create designs and proposals in the context of the project's surrounding environment. InfraWorks utilizes real-world GIS information to build data-rich models, including the accurate placements of terrain, aerial imagery, roads, buildings, landmarks, water sources, and more.

I spent my internship conducting a heuristic evaluation, interviewing users, and using my results to prototype an introductory experience for new users that is deployed during the software download process. Through my research I discovered that the greatest challenge for novice InfraWorks users is understanding the role found data plays in building new models. Users must download GIS data from external databases, import it into InfraWorks, and select the correct settings for each data layer. This process must be repeated separately for each layer of data, which means users must import different files for terrain, roads, buildings, etc. Further confusing the process is there are different file formats that each type of data can come in.

I developed several interactive animations to help explain to new users how models are built and manipulated inside InfraWorks. I created the visuals using Illustrator and Photoshop, and animated them using Adobe Edge Animate. I coded everything in HTML5, JavaScript, and JQuery. Here is a version of one of the simpler animations included in the prototype:

The following video shows the full interactivity of the prototype, and a version is available here (best viewed in Safari or Chrome) that you can explore. The prototype is currently hosted on a temporary website, and you may need to refresh the page in order to see the interactive animations.